1 About Simics Documentation

1.1 Conventions

Let us take a quick look at the conventions used throughout the Simics
documentation. Scripts, screen dumps and code fragments are presented in a
monospace font. In screen dumps, user input is always presented in
bold font, as in:

Welcome to the Simics prompt
simics> this is something that you should type

Sometimes, artificial line breaks may be introduced to prevent the text from
being too wide. When such a break occurs, it is indicated by a small arrow
pointing down, showing that the interrupted text continues on the next line:

This is an artificial
line break that shouldn't be there.

The directory where Simics is installed is referred to as
[simics], for example when mentioning the
[simics]/README file. In the same way, the shortcut
[workspace] is used to point at the user's workspace directory.

1.2 Simics Guides and Manuals

Simics comes with several guides and manuals, which will be briefly described
here. All documentation can be found in [simics]/doc as Windows
Help files (on Windows), HTML files (on Unix) and PDF files (on both
platforms). The new Eclipse-based interface also includes Simics documentation
in its own help system.

Simics Installation Guide for Unix and for Windows

These guides describe how to install Simics and provide a short description
of an installed Simics package. They also cover the additional steps needed
for certain features of Simics to work (connection to real network, building
new Simics modules, ...).

Simics User Guide for Unix and for Windows

These guides focus on getting a new user up to speed with Simics, providing
information on Simics features such as debugging, profiling, networks,
machine configuration and scripting.

Simics Eclipse User Guide

This is an alternative User Guide describing Simics and its new Eclipse-based
graphical user interface.

Simics Target Guides

These guides provide more specific information on the different architectures
simulated by Simics and the example machines that are provided. They explain
how the machine configurations are built and how they can be changed, as well
as how to install new operating systems. They also list potential limitations
of the models.

Simics Programming Guide

This guide explains how to extend Simics by creating new devices and new
commands. It gives a broad overview of how to work with modules and how to
develop new classes and objects that fit in the Simics environment. It is
only available when the DML add-on package has been installed.

DML Tutorial

This tutorial will give you a gentle and practical introduction to the Device
Modeling Language (DML), guiding you through the creation of a simple
device. It is only available when the DML add-on package has been installed.

DML Reference Manual

This manual provides a complete reference of DML used for developing new
devices with Simics. It is only available when the DML add-on package has
been installed.

Simics Reference Manual

This manual provides complete information on all commands, modules, classes
and haps implemented by Simics as well as the functions and data types
defined in the Simics API.

Simics Micro-Architectural Interface

This guide describes the cycle-accurate extensions of Simics
(Micro-Architecture Interface or MAI) and provides information on how to
write your own processor timing models. It is only available when the DML
add-on package has been installed.

RELEASENOTES and LIMITATIONS files

These files are located in Simics's main directory (i.e.,
[simics]). They list limitations, changes and improvements on a
per-version basis. They are the best source of information on new
functionalities and specific bug fixes.

Simics Technical FAQ

This document is available on the Virtutech website at
http://www.simics.net/support. It answers many questions that come
up regularly on the support forums.

Simics Support Forum

The Simics Support Forum is the main support tool for Simics. You can access
it at http://www.simics.net.